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D&D Ideas — Classic D&D Monsters

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is classic D&D monsters, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of monsters we’ve created quite a menagerie over the years ourselves like the Booze Ooze, Gantuan, Elemental Kin templates and so many more. You can find a ton of creatures for your game in Nerdarchy the Website’s Monster Category. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Howl at the moon for the week that was! Where wolf? Your next game, that’s where along with the best fragments of forbidden knowledge to explore the world and an apocalyptic game hack plus our weekly hangout and a live chat with an industry pro round out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

WizKids created a set of miniatures based off of classic D&D monsters from the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual comprising an ankheg, basilisk, beholder, bulette, carrion crawler, chimera, cockatrice and couatl. It appears they’ll do several of these and work their way through the alphabet. When I saw an article on this product I was intrigued especially after seeing the list of monsters. I’ve used five of these eight monsters in recent campaigns and multiples of them for good measure. The only monster of the bunch I haven’t used much in my games is the couatl.

Ankheg is one of my favorite ambush monsters. It burrows and has tremorsense. I have them wait below the surface and burst forsth to spray acid at the party. Not only this but if you have a warlock in the party who likes to fight from inside darkness they might be in for a nasty surprise. Since an ankheg is a burrowing monster it is easy for one to find half or three quarters cover by keeping much of its body in the hole from which it pops out. Beneath the ambush area there might be a network of tunnels just wide enough for a single file of the adventuring party if they are foolish enough to follow below into the tunnels.

You can use very similar tactics for your bulette minus the acid spraying.

A beholder’s lair should be one of the most interesting parts about this classic D&D monster. They don’t need to navigate the world the way most humanoids do. Nerdarchist Ted ran a behold lair that was challenging to navigate because it was all circular tunnels oriented both vertically and horizontally, which is something to think about when constructing the beholder’s lair. It doesn’t need to concern itself with stairs, ladders or ramps. Most likely there will be easy to navigate areas because beholders like to keep slaves and servants. This is just another way a beholder protects its lair. (It also keeps those slaves and servants from escaping.) I imagine the perfect beholder lair is a mix of easy to traverse chambers containing all of their underlings and hard to reach places where the beholder keeps its treasure and inner sanctum.

How might a beholder use magically constructed objects and features? They could zap them with their antimagic cone to make them wink out of existence. Once they turn off the cone they reappear depending on how the magic that created them works. As the Dungeon Master you could use magically created walls of fire, force or stone to create some memorable moments for the players. Imagine the adventurers charge across a cavern to do battle with beholder only to have the aberration activate its antimagic cone and the floor vanishes beneath their feet. You could do the same with a ceiling holding back green slime, lava, acid or some other nasty surprise. Beholders have Intelligence 17 — don’t be afraid to use these smarts.

Basilisk is a great monster to pair up with blind creatures like grimlocks. Also I would feel the need as the DM to trick my players into thinking they are going up against a medusa for sure.

Carrion crawler is another fun ambush monster but instead of coming from below they come from above. Adventurers walk through a door and boom! Eight slimy tentacles drop down on them. They look so weird and gnarly as well. We’ve got an encounter over on the DMs Guild where kobolds fight from howdahs on the carrion crawler’s back. The pay what you want Kobold Cavalry Encounter includes tips and suggestions for a few different creatures kobolds may wrangle for use as mounts and living siege engines. Check it out here.

Chimera is an awesome monster combining the appearance of a lion, dragon, and goat. Not only does it share it’s resemblance with these creatures but the worst personality traits. I can’t think of any better way to use a chimera as a companion and mount to one of the villains in your games.

Cockatrice is a fun little nuisance monsters. They aren’t particularly dangerous but they might leave a characters as a statue for the next 24 hrs. Could be a fun little mystery for new players to solve. People getting turned into statues and then going back to normal after a day.Once the players figure out what’s going on what do they do? Will they attempt to relocate the cockatrices or do they just slay them all? I’m sure at least one player will want one as a pet.

Couatl a good monster by far the hardest of the lot to use with a heroic group of characters. They are perfect to use against an evil party, but how do you use them with a good party. There are some classics like possession, corrupted, or just an anomaly for the creature type. A cursed item that swaps it’s alignment could work. Cases of mistaken identity where the couatl believe the party is in the wrong. Perhaps the party comes into possession of an object that is sacred to the couatl will they hand it over or are they willing to fight a good monster to maintain it?

From Ted’s Head

I believe this idea was inspired when Nerdarchist Dave saw the advertisement for WizKids new set of minis due for October 2022 release. The D&D Classic Collection: Monsters A-C set of minis and artwork are not final so I am not going to speculate on what we are going to see but there are people already talking about this online.

Many of the now iconic monsters got their start in the original Monster Manual. Some of the conversations I have had with fellow gamers over the years lead me to believe some of these creatures were inspired by really cheap toys and did not really look like anything in our world so new stories and lore were created. One such creature was the ever popular bulette. I bring this one up because as luck would have it I have a cheap kids’ toys that looks nothing like the bulette in the current Monster Manual.

Not only has artwork changed over the years and editions but we have seen new lore get developed beyond what initially existed, which changes how creatures began to interact. I adore these changes because it reinforces the fact as a Dungeon Master I have the power to make changes to my own game. Initially so many of the weird and now classic D&D monsters were given the lore of being created by a crazy wizard.

These days lore often indicates the specific wizard who did the deed or even better ties to other places and events including some things simply existing due to weird circumstances or as naturally occurring creatures — no crazy wizard needed. As a bit of a catalyst the creatures made by the crazy wizard not only inspired many new homebrew creations but memes galore and even a hoard of new creatures that got a lot of exposure on Avatar: the Last Airbender. I watched this series and loved all the crazy animal combinations, which all seemed to start with the owlbear.

The lore of the crazy wizard monster maker inspired numerous creatures I have made as well as campaigns of joy and frustrations. Now these monsters are getting more defined lore makes, which makes me wonder what else needs to be updated. It is no secret the displacer beast is one of my favorite classic D&D monsters and we could certainly stand to know more about this creature. Another favorite is the mimic. I am not a huge fan of ambush monsters but I have always loved the artwork on these beautiful creatures.

A friend of mine, Jake from Mini Terrain Domain, runs a game on Monday nights on Twitch called Scribes and Scrolls: the Candlekeep Mysteries. As a slight spoiler one of the characters has a piece of gear that is literally a tiny mimic. It talks to him and to a point is a member of the party. Mimics have been around from the beginning but we have no clue what a mimic looks like in its natural form. Is it an offshoot of oozes? The lore we have indicates some gain the ability to communicate but as a base creature they have Wisdom 13, which means as a whole they are more cunning than the average humanoid. They also have expertise in Stealth. I imagine this means they are incredibly patient as they move very slowly to get into place. They have the ability to alter their form to look like anything so they have an idea what their prey would be attracted towards.

I would love it if I could get a book all about mimics with new options for not only sizes but different abilities and most importantly some kind of culture and native aspects of where they come from and developing motivations beyond just hunger.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

Focusing on classic D&D monsters created a great opportunity to rewatch Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons. Nerdarchist Dave and I attended the premiere of this terrific film at Gen Con a few years ago and there’s lots of great scenes in the documentary looking back at production on the 1E AD&D Monster Manual. My first impression of the monsters in the spotlight this week comes from there. Perusing the pages of the old book’s illustrations of ankhegs, basilisks, beholders, bulettes, carrion crawlers, chimera and couatl to prepare for the live chat was a lot of fun.

I also learned this particular selection of monsters has more classic bona fides though. Many appear earlier in 1975’s Greyhawk supplement and when it comes to D&D cred it doesn’t get more OG than this module. Despite whatever changes in mechanics and playstyle emerge and evolve over the decades there’s no disputing monsters like the beholder are true icons of the game. (Even the super old basic D&D rules for the Sphere of Many Eyes sounds intimidating as heck!)

The most appealing thing about monsters for me is their montrousness, plain and simple. Classic D&D monsters like these function not merely like predators but true monsters. They’re fearsome fantasy creatures who largely lie in wait for their preferred prey — adventurers. You won’t find a note in the pocket of a slain carrion crawler scrawled in the hand of a child wishing daddy carrion crawler a good day of paralyzing adventurers for consumption. No hard feelings for bringing the ankheg population down a bit either. Even a beholder as the most sentient of the bunch exist mainly to make a dungeon really challenging.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used classic D&D monsters as combat fuel plenty of times but I’m no thrall of convention either. Of the lot I’ll always have a soft spot in my monstrous heart for carrion crawlers. These monster centipedes strike the perfect balance of relatable real world fear of big bugs with fantasy proportions. But a special nod will always go to the bulette, from which the most tender cut of meat is sourced in all of fantasy space. As a matter of fact the couatl bookends that culinary adventure. It had some gold dragon powers too. Regional effects are the juice y’all.

In the next roundup of classic D&D monsters I predict we’ll see the displacer beast, doppleganger and maybe the gelatinous cube. I’m most looking forward to some of my personal favorite classic monsters — umber hulks, otyughs and remorhaz. Oh, and I can’t forget the xorn and rust monster. There’s a lot of awesome classic D&D monsters.

*Featured image — We gathered all our modules focused on monsters in one place over at Nerdarchy the Website. We’ve got good aligned monsters, monsters you can ride as steeds, monster temples and lots more. Check out our Bestiaries here!

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